Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Peak Learning Experiences: A Group-Based Phenomenological Investigation And Description, Thomas A. Conklin

Organization Management Journal

This paper explores peak learning (PL) experiences through a semi-longitudinal approach across the life space of multiple groups of learners. Appreciative inquiry (AI) was used to gather data through interviews that resulted in unique examples of PL experiences. Once collected, a novel application of phenomenology was employed to identify the structural elements of participants’ experiences. Finally, thematic analysis was applied to the aggregated structural elements of each group to identify those common to all who participated in the AI. The final synthesis description was written in alignment with the structural themes and could be applied as a qualitative assessment to …

Strategy Implementation As Performative Practice: Reshaping Organization Into Alignment With Strategy, Sander Merkus, Thijs Willems, Marcel Veenswijk

Organization Management Journal

Much of the existing scholarly work on strategy implementation focuses on factors that either catalyze or obstruct the infusion of strategy into the organization. While this renders valuable knowledge about factors enabling or frustrating implementation, the actual process of strategy implementation is treated as a black box and as a step in the strategy model which is not further explained. To understand this process, this conceptual paper draws from performativity literature in which a strategy is conceptualized as a performative device. This means that a strategy triggers practices which reshape the organization so that the strategy is actualized in the …

Exploring Inclusion Of Leadership Development Into New Employee Orientations: A Proposed Approach From Army Leader Development, Michael J. Kirchner, Mesut Akdere

Organization Management Journal

Regardless of industry, organization leaders recognize the need for a strong leadership pipeline and a culture of sustained leader development, and the U.S. Army is no exception. Beginning in basic training, Army leaders offer soldiers leader development training through various methods, including defining leadership expectations, providing experience-based developmental exercises, and offering self-development opportunities. The early introduction is part of a continuous leader development regimen engrained in military service, and—as a result—military veterans are often credited by employers for their leadership skills. This paper, through exploring Army leader development, proposes a framework for introducing leadership development during new employee orientations based …

Integrity According To Whom? An Experiment Of The Effects Of Gender, Moral Integrity, And Behavioral Consistency On Evaluations Of Leaders, Benjamin J. Thomas

Organization Management Journal

Organizational stakeholders place great importance on leaders’ integrity, which, current theory indicates is a multidimensional construct. Drawing from leadership categorization theory and multidimensional leadership perspective, this research offered novel tests of the independent and interactive effects of a leaders’ behavioral consistency (the alignment between a leader’s words and actions) and moral integrity (doing right and not doing wrong) using experimental methods. The results of the 2x3x3 between-subjects (N = 781) factorial design reveal the moderate-strong magnitude of the effects of leader integrity on followers’ evaluations, and indicate the two dimensions of leader integrity—behavioral consistency and moral integrity—interact in fascinating ways. …

Psychological Underpinnings Of The Work-Site Selection Process Of Knowledge Workers, April J. Spivack, Ashay Desai

Organization Management Journal

As a result of technological advances, knowledge workers have become increasingly mobile; people can perform work in a variety of new locations via an assortment of new working arrangements. Knowledge workers are now faced with the question of where to work. We argue that the process of work-site selection depends on the relationship between a variety of individual factors such as motivation, cognitive and affective evaluation, and regulatory focus as they interact with self-regulatory resources. Specifically, we use a dynamic interactionist perspective to integrate components of social exchange, self-determination, regulatory focus, and selfregulation theories. The resulting conceptual model contributes to …

Examining Self-Monitoring And Neuroticism As Predictors And Self-Efficacy As An Outcome Of Authentic Leadership, Richa Chaudhary, Chinmay Panda

Organization Management Journal

The present study explores the role of personality traits of neuroticism and self-monitoring as determinants of authentic leadership, and self-efficacy as an outcome using a sample of 300 employees from automobile and heavy engineering companies in India. Support for the study hypotheses was mixed. Although the effect of neuroticism on authentic leadership was negative, the relationship was not significant. The trait of self-monitoring showed significant positive association with the ratings of authentic leadership. With regard to the outcomes of authentic leadership, the results provided support for the positive relationship between authentic leadership and self-efficacy. The study makes significant contribution to …

All Of The Above?: An Examination Of Overlapping Organizational Climates, Alice M. Brawley Newlin, Cynthia L.S. Pury

Management Faculty Publications

We examined the largely unexplored issue of strong associations between multiple specific climates (e.g., for safety and for service). Given that workplaces are likely to have more than one specific climate present, it is important to understand how and why these perceptions overlap. Individual ratings (i.e., at the psychological climate level) for seven specific climates and a general positive climate were obtained from 353 MTurk Workers employed in various industries. We first observed strong correlations among a larger set of specific climates than typically studied: climates for collaboration, communication, fair treatment, fear, safety, service, and work-life balance were all strongly …

Virtual Leadership In Organizations: Potential Competitive Advantage?, Thomas Kohntopp, J Mccann

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

The present and future of virtual leadership is connected to the rise and direction of the digital economy, as new technologies and applications will change the way business connects internally and externally with stakeholders. Data are at the heart of the digital economy and its protection is critical. The digital economy is of great interest both domestically and internationally. Its development and future are at the heart of every country’s economic competitiveness (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2017).

The Importance Of Leadership Motivational Activities In Encouraging International Students To Return To Their Tier 1 Universities, Eric Hall

Dissertations

Abstract

The problem is international students are not returning to their undergraduate Tier 1 institutions during a period when quality student enrollment is essential, and there is scant research on academic advising strategies that can be used to combat international student attrition at these universities (O’Keefe, 2013). Studies have often lumped all international students together and made efforts to attract more international students, but the reasons why international students chose research universities, and returned, were not being investigated in this manner (Hegarty, 2014).

The purpose of this proposed study was to gain an understanding of the decision-making and reasoning processes …

A Case Study Of Participant Responses To Organizational Change Involving Technology In The National Security Domain: How Informal Processes Iterate Structure And Outcomes, Brian E. Martinez

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Nuanced differences between organizations and the pace of change within the national security domain have routinely produced equivocal results involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. These results are characterized by unpredictable costs, unrealistic delivery schedules, and dubious ICT performance in-use. This research is a case study exploration of organizational change involving technology (also referred to as ICT) in the national security domain of the public sector.

This research used machine learning and manual content analysis to compare the results of three experiments on interview transcripts. The first experiment investigated linkages between empirical and interpretive elements of organizational change. Empirical …

Family As A Source Of Inequality Reproduction In Organizations: The Role Of Family Impact On Work In Explaining The Class Ceiling, Pooja Mishra

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Being born into a poorer family is associated with lower socioeconomic attainment even when people are provided with identical educational and job opportunities, a pattern known as the “class ceiling.” The class ceiling is generated within organizations, but specific reasons causing this effect are not well understood. I propose that one important explanation why employees from poorer families do not fare as well as their more fortunate co-workers concerns differences in families themselves. I integrate research from sociology and psychology explaining challenges faced by families with scarce resources with organizational research on specific pathways through which families can interfere with …

Toward A Typology Of Organizational Creativity, Gilbert Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Both researchers and practitioners realize the importance of organizational creativity as a source of competitive advantage and long-term organizational success. Although, research on organizational creativity abounds, many researchers and practitioners view organizational creativity as a unidimensional construct. This narrow view of creativity limit our understanding on how organizations generate creative ideas to compete in the market. This paper examines organizational creativity using a two-by-two matrix along 2 dimensions: Thinking Approach (Analytical versus Intuitive) and Problem Type (Bounded versus Unbounded). According to the framework, there are four types of organizational creativity: (1) Imaginative Creativity (application of intuitive approach to unbounded problem); …

Socioeconomic Mobility And Talent Utilization Of Workers From Poorer Backgrounds: The Overlooked Importance Of Within-Organization Dynamics, Marko Pitesa, Madan M. Pillutla

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Socioeconomic mobility, or the ability of individuals to improve their socioeconomicstanding through merit-based contributions, is a fundamental ideal of modern societies.The key focus of societal efforts to ensure socioeconomic mobility has been on the provision of educational opportunities. We review evidence that even with the same education and job opportunities, being born into a poorer family undermines socioeconomicmobility because of processes occurring within organizations. The burden of poorerbackground might, ceteris paribus, be economically comparable to the gender gap. Weargue that in the societal and scientific effort to promote socioeconomic mobility, the keycontext in which mobility is supposed to happen—organizations—and the …

Organizations And Societal Economic Inequality: A Review And Way Forward, Hari Bapuji, Gokhan Ertug, Jason D. Shaw

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We review research on the organizational causes (how do organizations contribute?) and consequences (how are organizations affected?) of economic inequality. Our review of 151 conceptual and empirical articles indicates that organizational research on economic inequality encompasses a wide range of topics at multiple levels of analysis, but also that this broad-scope literature exhibits conceptual ambiguities and lacks overarching organizing frameworks. To address these two issues, we develop an organizational perspective on economic inequality and clarify it as uneven distribution in the endowment and/or access to resources in a society, which manifests in differential abilities and opportunities to engage in value …

"The James Gang": Keys To The Success Of Tobin James Cellars, Natalie A. Fink

Communication Studies

This study looks at what motivates people to join and sustain membership with a particular wine club in the Paso Robles area. The four flows of organizational communication were applied to discover what allows wineries to be successful in the direct-to-consumer wine market. The study will uncover the research question: Using the four flows of organizational communication, why do individuals join and sustain membership with Tobin James Cellars as part of the “James Gang” wine club? Interviews were conducted with both wine club members and employees in order to collect data to answer the research question. Strong relations amongst employees …

Understanding The Consequences Of Newcomer Proactive Behaviors: The Moderating Contextual Role Of Servant Leadership, Talya N. Bauer, Serge Perrot, Robert C. Liden, Berrin Erdogan

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Proactive newcomers are more successful in terms of integration and job satisfaction, than newcomers who are less proactive. However, it is unclear whether contextual factors, such as the leadership style experienced by newcomers, matter. To address this gap in the literature, we gathered data at three times from 247 new employees across their first six months after joining a company in France. Given that past research has found that newcomers play an active role in their own adjustment process, in the current study we investigate how newcomer proactive behaviors relate to the key outcomes of job satisfaction, person-job fit, and …

The Center Of Success: A Case Study On Hilton's Company Culture, Elsie G. Lamo

Experience Industry Management

Company culture is an essential element to the success of any organization. This is especially true in the hospitality industry where positive employee experiences are vital to customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the company culture of Hilton. Data were sourced primarily from Hilton websites, third-party websites, and academic articles. This study found that Hilton’s culture is shaped by compelling mission, vision, and value statements that drive every organizational aspect. Additionally, award-winning reward, recognition, and training programs sustain and reinforce a culture that grants Hilton a unique competitive advantage. To maintain market leadership, Hilton must continually …

Exploratory Analysis Of Individuals' Mobility Patterns And Experienced Conflicts In Workgroup, Nur Camellia Binte Zakaria, Kenneth T. Goh, Youngki Lee, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Much research argues the importance of supporting social interactions in teams and communities. The field of mobile sensing alone offers significant advances in recording and understanding human and group behaviours. However, little is known about behavioural changes as a consequence of in-group phenomena. One prominent example is intra-group conflict, which naturally arises between diverse groups of people. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach to extract mobility patterns of individual's group behaviours sensed from a WiFi indoor localisation system and explore how these patterns relate to their team processes. 62 students enrolled in a project-intensive module, Software Engineering, were tracked …

Overcoming The Race-Sex Barrier: What Matters Most In The Executive Sponsorship Of Black Women, Stephanie B. Smith

College of Business Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the factors that are common, different and most important in the executive sponsorship of Black female protégés in comparison to the executive sponsorship of White male protégés. Drawing on social capital and social exchange theory, I propose a model that examines specific protégé and sponsor attributes relevant to career mobility and sponsorship for White male and Black female protégés. A sample of existing sponsors (n=72), comprised of C-suite executives (CEO, President, Managing Directors), and their protégés (n=59) who were senior level professionals (Division Presidents, General Managers, and Vice Presidents) participated in the study. Notwithstanding …

Building Trust For A Positive Employee Experience, Richard Raymond Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

How do we create the right environment of trust at workplace and avoid surprises?

Can Algorithms Help Us Decide Who To Trust?, David De Cremer, Jack Mcguire, Yorck Hesselbarth, Ke M Mai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms is increasing within organizations to manage business processes, hire employees, and automate routine organizational decision making. This comes as no surprise, since the application of simple linear algorithms have been shown to outperform human judgment in the accuracy of many administrative tasks. A 2017 Accenture survey also revealed that 85% of executives want to invest more extensively in AI-related technologies over the next three years.

Crossed Wires: Endorsement Signals And The Effects Of Ipo Firm Delistings On Venture Capitalists’ Reputations, David Gomulya, Kyuho Jin, Peggy M. Lee, Timothy G. Pollock

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Signaling theorists have paid a great deal of attention to the costs of acquiring characteristics that can serve as signals, such as endorsements from reputable third parties. However limited attention has been devoted to the penalty costs associated with providing inaccurate signals and the factors that can exacerbate or attenuate the penalties. In this study, we examine the effect of negative feedback loops on venture capital firms’ reputations that result from the failures (delistings) of the newly-public firms they once endorsed. Drawing on signaling and attribution theories, we argue that endorsements by reputable VC firms create high expectations that, when …

Leadership’S Influence On Environmental Sustainability, Stallar Lufrano-Jardine

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A phenomenological study within the gaming industry is currently being conducted to determine influential indicators within business operations. Based on interviews of executive leadership at global companies, participants disclosed the environmental developments at their organization based on industry norms and the ability to develop/execute environmental initiatives. Four themes emerged: the leader’s ideology and the political climate; the company’s founding principles; support from the industry and/or within the company; and the ability to change industry dynamics. Each leader touched on these four points. Regardless of department type, level of leadership, and the desire to be globally conscious, all participants remarked on …

Job Transitioning Experiences Of Blue-Collar Employees After Federal Downsizing, Eduardo Hurtado

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Downsizing, realignment, and closure of military bases have forced many low-skilled, blue-collar federal employees into involuntary job loss and job transition. The impact of involuntary job loss on blue-collar workers has been linked to stress and other adverse psychological effects. There is gap in the literature regarding the lived experiences of federal blue-collar employees following downsizing of military bases. The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive phenomenological study was to examine lived experiences of job loss and job transition for federal blue-collar employees following downsizing of military bases. Schlossberg’s transition theory provided a conceptual framework for the study. Ten ex-federal blue-collar …

Illness And The American Workplace: Issues And Implications For Employers And Employees, Victoria R. Dolan

Student Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to identify American employee experiences and existing workplace policies and cultures surrounding illness, disability, and sick leave. This approach was taken in order to closely examine what looks to be working well for companies and workers, and what could benefit from a more human centric approach in regards to workplace policy and employee support programs. The study of employee experiences in particular represents a gap in the current scholarly literature regarding illness and illness policy in the American workplace, and more accurately represents the experiences for both employees and employers. Furthermore, it assists with distinguishing the types …

Together Apart: Influences And Barriers To Engagement Among Remote Workers, Stacey-Robin H. Johnson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Organizations recognize the importance of having employees who do more than 'show up' for work. Rather, the goal is to have employees who will adapt to, embody, and promote the values, agenda, and strategic purposes of the organization beyond their work life. In the efforts around engagement, there are key influences in the organizational lifespan of an employee that can inspire or discourage engagement attitudes and behaviors.

Remote workers (defined here as those who work outside of a central, collective work setting) present unique challenges, the most pressing being maintaining a sense of connection and inclusion among the group in …

Closing Keynote, Theresa Coleman-Kaiser

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

No abstract provided.

Track A: Building Your House Of Lean: Standard Work And Effective Communication - Active Learning Session, Laurie Stark, Annelise Doll

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

This session will introduce the concept of standard work through a hands-on activity. Attendees will learn the importance of clear communication and language choices in growing a sustainable Lean environment. Presenters will share their experiences regarding how the Van Pelt and Opie Library has grown Lean through the use of standard work and effective communication.

Track B: Growing Continuous Improvement: An Example Of Pdca On Student Employee Visual Management Boards - Case Study, Dominique Aleo

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

Visual Management and the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) Cycle are well known Lean methods. The Student Process Improvement Coordinators in the Office of Continuous Improvement at Michigan Technological University use white boards to track progress on recurring performance duties.These boards cover multiple areas of work and showcase how many students with different schedules keep track of their workload within the office. This case study examines how the Visual Management boards have changed through multiple cycles of PDCA, in pursuit of perfect visual communication between the students who work in the office, and also perfect performance. Specifically, this presentation will …

1st Annual Conference Program, Michigan Technological University

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

Full conference program, including presenter bios and presentation descriptions.